State agencies ‘far removed from the Borg’, Donohoe says

By Cillian Sherlock, PA

The Irish civil service is nothing like “the Borg”, the Minister for Public Expenditure has said.

Paschal Donohoe said he would be cautious about opening up more State agencies, saying that there will be no such proposals in the Fine Gael election manifesto.

He was answering a question about whether he would like to see a reduction in the number of State agencies, which a reporter described as an unaccountable “Borg-like blob”.

The Borg are the alien cyborg race villains featured in the Star Trek universe, which operate as a hivemind.

It comes after national broadcaster RTÉ was beset by a year of financial scandals, as well as disclosures about the €336,000 Leinster House bike shed and €1.4 million security hut at Government Buildings delivered by the Office of Public Works.

Mr Donohoe said: “I know who the Borg are and the agencies that we’re talking about are as far removed from the Borg as you can imagine, and they are highly accountable.”

He said he believed it was important that existing agencies can show they are delivering against their mandate and using taxpayers’ money well.

He added: “I’m always questioning do we need to open up new agencies?

“I would be inherently cautious about doing it but the ones that have been opened up under this Government in particular, this manifesto which [Fine Gael] is currently preparing, won’t be recommending the closure of agencies that have only just been set up.”

He said the OPW had an “excellent track record” in terms of delivering new garda stations and flood relief schemes.